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Vista
Vista, previously known as the Echo Station, and referred to as Visten (Senglast cyrillic вистен) in Katsmonian scripture, is the main setting of Hourglass. It is a gigantic reproduction of old-Earth like climate and geology, created by Silhouette Technologies, and also acts as a genetic bank of several preserved species. As the Vistans didn't have a concept of a planetary world, when inhabitants use the term, Vista usually refers more to the continent than the station. Vista is located in orbit around Georgium, partially embedded in the gas giant's dust rings, which give it radar cover and makes it harder for foreign vessels to make contact with it. Vista possesses a perfect 24-hour day, and a perfect 356-day year, due to its entirely artificial spin and orbit around Georgium. It is primarily consisted of one large landmass, capped at the North by an ice wall and surrounded by one large ocean dotted with islands and archipelagos. Vista houses a superdense inner core of several different types of radioconstitutive elements, created in secret through radioconstitutive propagation. This gigantic artificial core is kept from alloying together through centrifugal force, and can be tapped into through the planet's artificial intelligence, Watchdog; the most common way to do this is through the planet's voice over command protocol, which the Vistan population believe to be a form of spellcasting. Watchdog can also be interacted directly through an interface located in the planet's core. Though mostly devoid of life other than plant life throughout most of the 23rd Century, Shimon Ishikawa led a population of human survivors from the Haze's attacks. Realising that his activity would eventually drive the Haze to the planet, Shimon modified Watchdog's programming to eventually seed the planet with its available genetic material (including that of humans), and created warnings housed in stone tombs using massive world-terraforming machines left behind when the station was abandoned. After Shimon left the planet, Watchdog released intelligent life onto the planet, leading to the accelerated rise of the second wave of humanity. Planetary Information Vista is not a full planet - it is a nail-shaped space station, housing the full habitable planetary surface on its flat side, and housing the planet's core on the spire directly below it. The core itself maintains the station's orbit, the gravity on the planet surface, and also houses the station's radioconductive core. The core itself is not usually accessible from the planet surface, with the exception of four planetary elevators located in a square pattern on the planet's surface. These elevators end in a large, empty section between the planet surface and the planet core, referred to by Vistans as the Underdark - the gravity here, due to the way the planet's gravitational core interacts with the planet's surface, is very low, and allows most objects to simply float around unfettered by gravity. Normal gravity is restored the farther down into the Underdark one goes. The Underdark itself is a massive, barren section that only serves as a space buffer between the surface and the core. Vista is artificially kept in an orbital period of 356 days around its orbiting body, Georgium. It takes the station exactly 24 hours to spin on its axis, which is also artificially maintained by the core's gravity. The gravity on the surface of the planet is likewise exactly 1.0 G (~9.8N). Vista primarily consists of four large landmasses: Nornland, Eucaria, Tolvanera, and Aspizwe. The border of the planet surface is surrounded by supermassive force-field generators, preventing the oceans from spilling off the sides of the planet. The planet itself is entirely sterile - it is not possible to catch diseases on Vista, as all life on the station was artificially introduced. History of Vista Echo Station Vista, or more commonly known as the Echo Station, was the sole focus of the Echo Project. Founded and maintained by Silhouette Technologies, the station was a recreation of old-Earth conditions in the 21st Century, complete with its own unique landmasses. As the manipulation of genetic material was outlawed and severely restricted, the entire station was created and maintained in secret. Its unique position in the dust rings of Georgium, combined with a planet-wide stealth field, allows it to remain undetected to most conventional and direct detection methods. It was eventually discovered by MICHAEL operatives, but Sil-Tec's attempts to hide the station were not to ensure it was hidden forever - rather to ensure the construction of the station had progressed sufficiently that even MICHAEL could not hope to take it by force if it were to be discovered. Last Bastion At some point in the Human-Haze conflict, the entire station was abandoned, most likely due to the encroaching Haze threat and the doom it would spell for the station to be discovered by it. Shimon Ishikawa would utilise MICHAEL archives to determine the location of Echo Station, and landed there to escape the pursuing Haze along with a large population of human survivors. While initially confident the station would safeguard them from the nanothreat, Shimon realised that the station was abandoned to keep its location safe from the Haze in the first place - spurring his decision to abandon the decision like its creators, but not before ensuring that the station would seed itself with life after the Haze had gone into dormancy to ensure the survival of the human race. Shimon knew that if the second emergence of humanity were to reach the space age and leave the planet's surface, they would instantly be detected by the Haze, and so he and the human survivors set about creating the Shimon Tombs using planet-wide Terraformers that were initially used to create the station's planetary surface. Inside these tombs, the human survivors left behind warnings, detailing the Haze threat in Senglast, and warning the future humans not to leave the station. These tombs were large and intricate, and specifically designed to withstand time and the elements. Each tomb also contained traps and puzzles, in order to ensure that only humans, and only humans intelligent enough to survive the attempt to breach the tomb, could open each warning and comprehend it. Vista By the events of Hourglass, the surface of Vista has already been populated with swathes of intelligent life, both mundane and genetically engineered variants from experimental genetic material. Most old-Earth species can be found on Vista, as well as unique species such as jackalopes, goldenhorns, and asps. Due to the readily propagating effects of the station's massive radioconstitutive core, radioconstitutive elements are also extremely common on the planet's surface, making the human population very well versed in radioconductivity and its effects. This has lead to magic being a prevalent phenomenon in Vistan culture. Locations The following is a non-exhaustive list of locations on the station. * Planetary Surface ** Cynedom *** Eversail *** Cobblestone *** King's Ruins *** Port Mifune *** Vayers Cove *** The Bronze City *** Sandstorm City ** Shevai ** Eucaria ** Nornland ** Aspizwe ** al-Hikman ** Sanzi * Planetary Core ** The Underdark ** Watchdog Interface ** Planet Core